Issue Reporting Picture Story
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[ ISSUE REPORTING PICTURE STORY ] A long-term project on a single topic. It could focus on science, news, politics or any number of topics, ranging from coverage of a single person to an entire community. The project must convey a deep understanding of the subject. Each submission consists of 10 to 40 images. Each participant is allowed to enter up to 3 submissions. All images must be taken in 2022.
Judges for Issue Reporting Picture Story
Quick links to award categories: Spot News / Portraits / Nature & Environment / Recreational & Traditional Sports / Sports Action / General News / Daily Life / Daily Life Picture Story / Portrait Series / Issue Reporting Picture Story / Cultural Practices / Photographer of the Year, Asia
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I was raised in the Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus. In the camp, I'm not Palestinian. in the city of Damascus, I'm labeled as a refugee. Where ever I go, I'm treated as a stranger. I don't have a way out, neither a passport nor a family. I never had a home. I'm afraid of being stuck here, though I constantly seek reasons to stay. I find myself possessed with loose ends. The love and intimacy we share in a deserted place is a layer of poetry that allows us to survive in the midst of uncertainty and daily trauma. The events that started in 2011 Is still present in my mind. We have lost the smell of the land we love.
The Ural Mountains stretch from the North to the South over many thousands of kilometres, dividing the two parts of the world - Europe and Asia. As an area situated «between two worlds» and inhabited by numerous indigenous folks, Ural was the birthplace of a rich mythology. The Soviet writer Pavel Bazhov, fascinated by Uralic folklore, became the author of the famous collection of Uralic tales where reality and fantasy are intertwined. I travel around places where Pavel Bazhov's tales took place and meet people who now live there. In fact, I am following the path of Bazhov - he travelled extensively across the Urals interacting with indigenous people. He was deeply interested in their lifestyle and stories passed down from generation to generation. By observing and talking to locals it is possible to explore those permanent archetypes that are part of any mythology. I would like to understand the changes of social landscape in this area and the continuing significance of tales and myths in modern life. A lot of characters in Pavel Bazhov's tales had real and mythological prototypes. They are closely connected with specific geographical location, rooted in tales, mythology, and traditions. They stay faithful to their ancestral places, which give them support and fill them with strength. However, some heroes of Bazhov's tales choose to wander and decide to leave their home bravely facing unavoidable obstacles and challenges. The idea of this project is a result of my reflections on the importance of the bonds between a human, his or her motherland, traditions and their continuity. All this turned out to be directly connected to the current events happening in my country, Russia, which I had to leave. Being pulled away from my home ground and familiar environment, I have to reinvent my idea of home and my values.
Climate change in Hong Kong has worsened housing crisis for city’s poor. Anyone who has experienced a Hong Kong summer has a story about the oppressive heat and humidity. In 2022, a heat wave has left residents sweltering more than ever. And for thousands, home is a tiny rooftop hut that offers no escape from the torrid conditions. Hong Kong’s suffocating summers are often made worse by an environment of concrete towers, concrete parks and roadside emissions. But the effects of climate change are compounded here for those of modest means. Exorbitant property prices and long waits for public housing have pushed poorer residents into bleak living arrangements such as subdivided apartments and illegal but widespread rooftop huts that dot the tops of tenement buildings. Some 220,000 people, or about 3 percent of Hong Kong’s population, live in cramped rooftop huts, subdivided apartments and cage homes, according to a 2021 government report. With the poor design of these structures, residents experience conditions that can be 5 to 6 degrees Celsius hotter than outdoors during a heat wave, according a July report by the Society for Community Organization, a nongovernment group focused on housing issues.
After months of simmering tensions, brought on by a severe economic crisis that led to shortage of essentials including food and fuel, Sri Lanka descended into chaos in early 2022, with an unprecedented wave of protests breaking out across the island nation of 22 million people. The initial phase of street protests in Sri Lanka’s main city of Colombo were led by students but as political leaders vacillated and shortages worsened, tens of thousands of ordinary Sri Lankans – from all sections of society – took to the roads. In early July, a massive show of public dissatisfaction in Colombo, which included clashes with armed police and military soldiers, led to the storming and then subsequent occupation of Sri Lanka’s presidential palace and other government buildings, ending with the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who also temporarily fled the country. It was the first time in Sri Lankan history that an elected executive president had been forced to quit because of public unrest.
